Anathema of Frozen Fractals
by DaemonDeDevil
Summary: FemNaru Fic. Sasuke belongs to an organization that studies mysteries and solves what had caused it. He makes a rash decision to investigate a Kingdom that had caused everyone to change after visiting the area. What he finds there ends up being the last thing he expected. Did such things exist; hidden by ignorance? Bad at summaries. M for possible Language.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor the characters of Naruto. I don't even own my own food, so I certainly don't own much except for the story concept. **Warning:** Naruto is a female in this story (despite being referred to as 'he' and 'him' in the beginning.

**No trolls, flamers, or critique.** Though in reality with this story; I really don't care haha.

A heads up to everyone, I'll be honest, I didn't put much effort into this story when it was first put together. Why put it up if I'm not keeping up with my stories? Well, because this story would be perfect for this time, as it started off ridiculous and can end just the same without me wondering 'What would have made it better?' when I really don't care. How I have it now is much better than how it originally was… so much better…

To end any confusion before it starts, even though Naruto is a female in this story, his name will _**not**_ be Akuma and it won't be Naruko as well. Naruto will be Naruto, but possible with small changes in skin tone and hair tone due to what this story is about. I figured this needed to be stated incase people were concerned about the name I would be using.

†

Once there was a kingdom hidden beyond powerful waterfalls filled with beauty and purity. It was a kingdom well known, as it accepted anyone into their village, even if they were once a criminal. How such a kingdom could exist, one may ask on occasion, but it truly did and it was powerful due to the rule. It existed until over a decade ago, in which it fell into ruins without as much of a clue as to why it did. For reasons like this, an organization was created to investigate ruins and what had caused the downfall.

That group became known as Shinobi, though later it was changed due to an existence of real 'Shinobi' from the history of this world. The organization eventually split into different branches throughout the world. The strongest branch was the one called 'Leaf' though they called themselves 'Konoha' and they called the hide out 'Konohagakure' due to all the trees that hid it.

Over a decade since the fall of the great kingdom, it was found that the event of the fall was due to foul play, causing Konoha to be sent in. Due to the high mysteries surrounding what took place the day of its fall; only the best was sent to examine the ruins. Many didn't return, while the ones that did return ended up retiring due to mental scars caused by the mission. Among the few that came back, one was the well known Uchiha Itachi; who was Konoha's greatest member of the organization. Due to this, the mission became marked as a high level class mission because of the dangers on the mental level. Knowing that the mission was dangerous, they canceled the hunt to solve this mystery, causing it to be the very first cold case the organization had.

Well, that was until the day that Uchiha Itachi's younger brother stepped up. At first the organization was hesitant to let the younger brother go, due to what Itachi would do plus the purity the younger brother held. It was then that Itachi spoke with logic in his sentences. He stated that if anyone could solve it, it was his pure baby brother. Apparently in his mind, you needed to be pure and honest to go on this mission.

This may confuse some, but Itachi wasn't pure. He was kind hearted, but he was forced to commit a crime in order to save the organization. This entailed killing the Uchiha family—though he did fail to kill his baby brother. He didn't run away from the truth, instead he waited patiently for people to come kill him. No one came for his life and his baby brother never once said anything to him about the death of their parents.

Actually, instead I just found myself wanting to prove myself to my brother instead of our father. Yes, I was the baby brother, and the one who volunteered to investigate the incident that happened at the Kingdom hidden beyond waterfalls. I had my reasons for wanting to investigate this area, well other than wanting to prove that I could be a part of the Konoha organization. I wanted to know if this place was truly as welcoming as legends said it was.

This was why I was being shoved around by villagers who were rushing around to do their chores before nightfall… though I didn't quite understand why this village rushed their chores when it was still early in the day. When I asked an adult, they simply shouted they didn't have time for this and ran off with the items in their hands. My only luck was in a child who was sitting on the sidewalk, waiting for her mother to finish her tasks. She simply told me that scary things came out at night. Could it be possible that the kingdom is angry at the village for betraying them? Could their spirits be haunting the village they accepted with open arms? By this point I was overly excited to get myself to the old castle.

What I wasn't expecting was the fact that they had the entrance towards that castle blocked off due to their fear of these 'scary things'. Apparently the gate only opens twice a month; when the merchants and farmers from that region come to make their deliveries. Of course, my timing was horrible, as the next time they would open that gate would be in another month, due to the farmer not having any supplies for the markets. Thanks farmer for screwing me over on getting through the gates!

"What I'm telling you is that I'm a part of the Konoha organization that investigates such places to end these mysterious events. If you want to stop fearing the night, you should at least let me climb down the other side of the gate." It was really hard trying to persuade the village mayor. You would think they would let someone through if they said they would solve their problems. "Many people from those organizations have come and gone and our problem never once left, how can we trust that you won't be any different?" He had a good reason to not trust me though, I'll give him that much.

"I've been studying this Kingdom since I was 14 months old. The only reason that organization got this far was because my brother listened to all my assumptions. Seeing as I am now old enough to resist petty illusions, they allowed me to take the place of my brother to finish what he started." I could tell that the mayor really wanted to let me through, but he also had the safety of his people in mind. "I understand your concern, but it is my duty to solve these mysterious events and put an end to them." The mayor shook his head before turning his gaze towards where the Kingdom was assumed to be located.

"I fear that each time we let someone through, that the royal family only gets angry and causes us the fear. It was always a peaceful place here before their fall. A year after the fall of the royal family, your main branch came here to 'solve' the mystery, but in the end, we were haunted by dangerous creatures." So someone from the original organization caused this? Actually that doesn't surprise me; it was run by idiots back then. Well that was what Itachi told me anyway, and I trust his judgment.

"I will allow you into the woods, but do not expect back up if you fall into trouble. We want no part in any of this… we grow tired of this doom we have been greeted with." Wait… what just caused him to change his mind? I didn't even say anything that would persuade him thus far and now suddenly he is alright with it. "The night draws near, if you don't leave soon, that _thing_ will consume you." He motioned for the guards to allow me through before leaving for the safety of his home.

"Just as the mayor said, if you want to make it to the Kingdom safely, you should leave now. Go down this path until you reach a fork in the road, at this point, you want to go off the left most path and continue until you reach the river. If you follow that river, you will then reach the safest entrance to the Kingdom. The worst path to take would be the path itself, as that is filled with _creatures_ and dangerous spikes." The guard tapped the gate, causing a door to flip open. "Go now." Without giving me much of a chance to speak, I was pushed out of the village and into the 'dangerous' woods.

Taking the route that the guard told me to, I could see that _something_ was going through these woods. But when I look at the markings left behind, the creature never did go near the village, but instead peered at it from a distance. It was as if the creature was watching over the village, not trying to haunt it. It was possible that a member from the main branch threatened to harm the village and it caused this creature to feel the need to protect the village from all the branches. It was possible that even I could end up being injured like my brother due to this. Well, this was just an assumption, if anything the organization could have set up a barrier around the village and the creature couldn't break through.

When I reached the river, it was my first hint that something wasn't right. Actually, it wasn't even a river now, considering the whole thing was frozen. I may not know much about the weather in this region, but I knew that the river being frozen wasn't normal. Then again, I heard a villager state earlier that the water will stop at night; I guess the river freezes at night. If that was the case…. Something definitely wasn't right here at all.

Thankfully there was still a way to get through the waterfall, though it was a tight squeeze. If what the villagers said was true, then in the morning I would have an easier way out. Though honestly, I didn't want to think about this, I just wanted to get inside the kingdom and see if there was any more evidence towards foul play. I was truly concerned about what I could find inside the palace. No I wasn't afraid of any creatures; actually I was simply concerned about the ice I found all around me and what could have caused it. Granted, it really did get cold here at night, but I guess that is because this entire place was surrounded by water.

"Holy…" I could only stare in shock at what was left of the castle. The entire place was shrouded in ice like spikes. Seriously, what the hell happened here? This isn't normal at all! Maybe this was what caused the mental scar on all the organization members… learning how this came to be.

Upon entering, you could truly see that something was amiss. For starters, it was too easy to enter the front gate, which meant that in reality villagers did come here, though it was probably kids or teenagers playing a silly test of fears or this was just their hangout. Though the fact that everything was in complete ruin inside the castle walls itself was what bothered me. The place was partially burned, while small spots had minor burn spots and signs of gasoline stains. This was a familiar scene I encountered in another kingdom. The village had started a revolt against the royal family, and ended up trying to burn the evidence of their break in. This explains why all I could get out of them was that creatures came out at night. Hell, this was probably why they sent me after fighting with me, to make it seem like they had nothing to do with the fall of the kingdom.

"So it was the villagers that did this…" Deciding that it was time to put the village to the test, I made my way back towards the front door. A creak in the castle caused me to stop all movement. I wasn't alone in here… was it possible that they sent me up here along with someone else? I turned towards a shadow but saw nothing there. It was possible that they knew I would find out it was them and now they were out to kill me.

The floor creaked, causing me to turn around just as something came down towards me. There was no way I could avoid an attack now, I was too late to realize there was something behind me. I waited for my vision to be filled with the sickening red color. No… this wasn't right… this wasn't right at all. I thought everything would be red…

But… why was everything blue instead?

-AN—

When I first wrote this story, Sasuke was just an average person who by chance crashed into the Kingdom and… well everything in that first chapter seemed a little…. Awkward considering the situation. So I re-wrote the story about 2 years ago and decided it would be a Christmas story or something to put up in the winter time due to all the icy feelings the story has.

When I re-wrote this, I made many rash decisions. One of them happened to be the history between Sasuke and Itachi. With the original keeping to Itachi being the 'bad guy' and Sasuke hating him… the story only lasted 10 chapters. As much as I enjoyed the shorter work compared to my other stories, this story just screamed with possibilities. My second rash decision was on how to write the story itself. In the end I chose to write it like my original story that was written in First person, but it avoided all the minor keys like 'I asked' 'I walked' and so on. Despite this, the story does say 'I' a lot, though honestly I wasn't aiming for perfection.

This entire story is one rash decision after another, which is why I know many won't enjoy this story. Though there is actually one thing I want to state: _**Though it appears as though I rushed the storyline towards the Kingdom—it is actually Sasuke's nature in this story to rush things and ignore the details.**_ This was one of those rash decisions I made. But I went with it because of studying how Sasuke acted like a child; this being before the murder of his parents. Sasuke is much different in the beginning, though he still is the 'silent type' but that is only for now.

For all the people who will probably leave a review saying 'Could be better' or something around those lines…. Yes, yes it could. And though I sound rude right now, nothing I'm saying is actually supposed to sound like me being an ass. Even I can agree that this story could be better, but hey this is one of those rash decisions I made. I decided I would put the story up, read what those who were enjoying the story would say, and then fix it in the future.

Though… I do enjoy people liking my half-assed attempts on stories more than the stories I actually put a lot of effort into. Does that make sense? Probably not… but Yogen no Ko started off as a half-assed story, but everyone enjoyed it! I didn't understand why… in reality it was going to be the shortest story I had; but look at it now… it really has progressed further than imagined.

So to those who enjoy my half-assed work; Thank you, truly. I may not be a good writer, but I do certainly enjoy watching the joy people have when a story gets a chapter update.

Oh yes, this story will be 2k words, roughly, a chapter. So it still is short, but at least not the normal 1.2k that I normally do. It is possible that I might make random chapters more than 2k in words, while in others I might use it to a cliffhanger advantage… because I love cliffhangers, and plot twisters…. Hehehe Yeah, I'm that type of Author.

Ah before I forget, I tried getting this up on the 29th but considering it didn't show up at all after 2 days of waiting, I decided to delete what was showing for me and make another attempt at putting it up. So if this is the second time you are seeing this story pop up, I truly am sorry for that. Ever since I decided to spam update my stories for Christmas, I've been more bugged than usual. Don't worry, I sent my report in a while back. If this happens to go through unlike when I tried on Sunday, I'll be quite content.

And as my normal trademark:

-Ja ne!


	2. Chapter 2

It wasn't normal for someone to get jumped for trying to help others. To get attacked after coming to a conclusion on what happened over a decade ago; the villagers came to mind. Yet, it wasn't an attack nor was it a villager that had jumped me. Instead, frightened sapphires stared through me. What were they afraid of? Actually, why was there anyone up here to begin with if they weren't here to attack me? Were they from the nearby merchant town trying to make a delivery but ended up here? No… they aren't dressed like a merchant, nor a farmer. Hell they didn't even appear to belong to the village below.

"W-who are you?" I was astonished by their dialect. They spoke my country's language, but with a speech pattern I never heard before. I wouldn't say they sounded mature but… they wouldn't be someone you would find in these parts. "My name is Sasuke; I traveled quite a distance to see what had become of this Kingdom." I could tell they were hesitant in talking to me—possibly figuring out that I was from Konoha. "I-I'm Naruto-ttebayo…" Naruto? As in Narutomaki? Why would anyone name their child something like that? Well, this country is weird already to me; I guess it might be a common name or something.

"Naruto… why are you in such a place this late at night?" Maybe they knew something about what happened here; something that could help me in proving that the villagers attacked the Kingdom. "Ano… I live here." I stared at them in shock. How else could I react at knowing that someone would live here despite all the deaths that took place here?

"Do you know what happened here then?" Their gaze turned hazy. A nod soon followed before they shook their head. Was that a yes or a no? "Don't be afraid to tell me, I'm here to convict those who wronged the castle." Wait… damn it, I probably just made this worse by stating that. Their parents could have done the crime and now they probably won't speak knowing that they might lose their parents. Great job, I'm sure your brother will be so proud now…

"It's just… I know what happened but not everything-ttebayo… The castle was brought to ruin the day I was born so…" This gained my attention. They knew exactly _when_ the castle was brought to ruin, that was something the organization wanted to know for a long time. "When was that?" I wasn't asking for the organizations sake, but probably for my hunger of knowledge. "October 10th… ano… ice lives longer than flesh and stays younger so…" What did the ice have to do with anything? Was it the fact that the castle had ice all around it that they felt frozen in time and possibly separated from humanity?

"Well, I was born July 23rd, about 19 years ago. You look to be around 13 years old." The fact that I got a glare told me that probably wasn't their age at all. "I said ice stays younger than flesh-ttebayo! I appear younger than what I am! …whatever that may be…" So wait… was this kid saying that the ice was keeping them younger? Were they trying to play me as a fool? All statements I was about to make to the kid came to a complete halt.

Since when was their skin radiating such a beautiful glow of blue? Hell, how long has the area around them been so cold? Blue tinted skin, frosted blonde hair, glassy blue eyes… when you look at it; it was as if this kid was actually… dead. Was this the 'scary thing' that came out at night? An ageless ghost that was frozen in time…? It would make sense… if they didn't have a solid body!

"Ice isn't always so young, you know… It melts from the heat." Instantly, they shook their head in disagreement towards my comment. "Ice turns to water when it melts… it never fully disappears, in reality it turns to vapors and returns to the earth once more. No matter how many times it melts… it stays young-ttebayo." Okay, they were very sentimental about Ice. I think they shouldn't be in a country filled with water then but maybe that place covered in snow.

"Right… anyway, can you tell me what you do know then?" Their gaze stayed on me, as if seeing if I could be trusted. Why choose to do that now? "To make it short, since you seem to be in a rush… A man with black and red eyes came here to kill the royal family. He ended up putting a curse on the royal family's child, because apparently he couldn't kill them so easily. The end-ttebayo." The kid stood up, making their way into another room.

"Wait… that didn't even answer anything! That man, was he from the village below?" They stopped walking. "No… he came from a land filled with fire." Land filled with fire? No matter how much I think about it, only Konohagakure was known as the Land of Fire, but I don't recall there being much of fire in it as there was wood, trees and grass. Unless we were talking about the tales of magic that existed in these lands, then maybe; but magic was simply a fairytale created by daydreamers.

"Okay, so I at least know it wasn't someone from the village, so you saved them from being accused of a crime they didn't commit. But now you have me thirsty for more about what happened here. You said the man cursed the royal family's child… but from what I read, the queen wasn't far in her term with her child and she and the child were murdered. Actually to be more exact, what I read was that the queen was raped to the point that she took her own life. Let's not forget the king, who was forced to watch all of this occur." There was silence afterwards. The fact that they stopped moving completely told me that what I said was like a thorn in the side, that or a nail to the heart.

"You're silent now." Yes, I like to point out the obvious. Well, not always, but the dull expression on this kids face was really starting to bother me. I could only sigh when they stayed in that silence. Maybe I went too far by bringing up that last part, but it truly was in the reading I did years ago. "Naruto, how about you come with me?" The sudden life that flashed through their eyes wasn't what I expected. "I… I want to see the world… I've lived here all my life-ttebayo…" I see, so he was an abandoned child then. That or he was a child of one of the servants that was murdered.

"B-but… I'm unable to leave." That makes no sense… you want to leave, but you can't? You have no master to listen to here if you were born into a family of servants. "Enlighten me… why can't you?"

"Ano… someone from some organization came here a long time ago and took my blood and smeared it into some strange barrier seal… they thought I was some demonic creature because I was living here-ttebayo… They put a curse on me that has me bound to these lands…" Well, at least that confirmed my earlier discovery about not being able to go past a certain point but… to seal someone inside a place… that was not what I was expecting. Actually I only heard of seals being an ancient thing that monks and priests used. If that was the case, why would there be such a thing here? Unless… reality is that this kingdom really was frozen in time. Like, maybe the fall came due to an influx in time and maybe this kid didn't know how old he was because of that.

"…You have a weird look on your face… someone gave me that same look before, so I think I know what is going through your mind… no I'm not thousands of years old. I think you had a happy childhood-ttebayo… considering you don't seem to know a lot about the reality of this world." Well, at least I knew this kid did meet Itachi judging by his comment. "I can show you where the seals are, but I don't want you to try to pull them off… everyone who has touched it thus far, has pretty much gone mad." Oh, so this apparent seal was what caused my brother to go crazy? That's just great.

Though why I followed this kid out of the castle, I have no idea… I guess he really did have my curiosity in the end. My thoughts quickly came to an end when I saw them fly past me. "T-there's the seal… ouch that hurts more and more each time…" They mumbled as they dusted their clothes off. Before me was a tree with the Konoha main branch fire symbol drawn on it in what appeared to be blood. Ah… this kid mentioned someone from the land of fire coming here to kill the royalty… could it have been someone from the main branch?

"How would you even take something like this off a tree?" Why did his shrug not surprise me? "I tried throwing water on it to make the word fade away but it didn't work, so I tried freezing it but that didn't go well at all… froze myself instead." How do you even try to freeze an object let along yourself? Maybe that was why their skin was blue as if they were freezing. "Hey, there is a trail that leads to the actual front of the castle… why is that area dangerous?"

"I never made my way down that path before… Can you… show me?" How do you live here all your life yet not know about that path? "Follow me then." The joy in their face felt… heartwarming to be quite frank. Though, I wonder why something seemed off about this kid. "Tell me about yourself, Naruto. I've only asked you questions about the kingdom, which was quite rude of me." Hey, anything is worth a shot at this point.

"I'm an orphan, if you couldn't tell. I was forced to watch my parents die before my own eyes as an infant… That was probably too much detail there… ano… Oh yes! There is this one guy who used to visit me a lot and brought me these noodles that tasted great… I think he called it ramen! I enjoy that. Well… that's all I feel safe saying to a stranger." That was still more than I expected to hear. I guess I wasn't the only one who had their parents murdered though, but I am grateful that Itachi didn't make me watch their death, like this kid had to watch his own.

"I have an older brother who came here once to try and solve the mystery of the kingdom's fall… His name is Itachi. He actually killed my parents 12 years ago. I don't blame him for doing it, since I know it was the main branch that demanded that he killed the family to protect the organization."

"Oh I remember `Tachi! He played hide and seek with me! He visited me a few times though I think the end of his visits were my fault anyway-ttebayo… He told me about some things that his family was doing that he wasn't too proud of then he told me he had a baby brother that was around my age, or something like that… The last time he came here, he asked me if he had done right by his actions." Wait… Itachi came here that often? Actually what was with that '`Tachi' thing not too long ago?

"What did you do that caused my brother to stop visiting you then?" His smile never faltered as he spoke up. "I turned something to ice-ttebayo!"

Hah…?

-AN—

So from just 2 chapters, Sasuke's personality is that of a hungry historian (if you think about it). Then you look at Naruto, who has an awkward personality. Sasuke doesn't seem to bright when it comes to helping Naruto, nor understanding him… but Sasuke doesn't believe any of these fairytales.

Their attitudes will start to change though. I don't know about you guys, but I like a mysterious Naruto. That would be why Naruto will start off as a big mystery until later in the story of confusion.

I'm updating this story before I go into work… It's -3 degrees and my heater is no longer blocking the cold… so I'm under 3 blankets with my one jacket on top. (I'm so small I could use my jacket as a blanket… I mean I already use pillow throws as blankets…)

So I ended up having to work on my day off… again… Well, I decided to do the 12-6 shift rather than the 12-8 one since I believed they would be fine… Now one of the rules is: day workers can't leave until all the night workers are there… I was the only one who would be leaving at 6, and I just happened to be working door at that time. Which means I couldn't roam freely nor do my end of shift tasks. By 5:59, the second 6 P.M. worker showed… we were waiting for the last 6 P.M. worker to come. I told them that once they came, they would be taking door and I would be taking my leave for the night. 15 minutes pass… I'm still on door…. 5 more minutes, I get asked if she showed, I state no…. 10 minutes later, they come back up and state for me to just ask to leave. I was stuck there for 40 minutes and that kid never showed up! What I find worse is that kid's dad was working that night. (Police get paid to be there on weekends)

So I have a sour mood towards that kid now. I tried hard to help them out since they were new, even tried to be social with them… Hah I had a better chance with the other Cop's kid (By this I mean, that kid is pretty silent and only talks once in a while unless it's a guy… yeah he is shy around women) So I work day with the two new kids and the one happens to be that person from last night… So I'm like… "I just work 6 hours with them… just 6 hours… then I can work 2 hours with all the fun co-workers"…. OK! Done ranting…

So I'm not sure when I'll put up the third chapter, might be again soon, maybe… it really depends on if I can find time around work and moving… I mean technically with all the chapters I had up, I could put them all in the document manager and spam them all on here… however from experience, after putting up just 2, sometimes 3, chapters… I end up with a glitch to where I can't tell if a story actually updated fully or if only I, myself, can see the chapter. I mean I still can't see NHS Chapter 55, but I was told by 10 different people that it updated so… I'll take their word for it.

That's enough talk for now…. I'm going to hide under my blankets until I realize I'm running late for work.

-Ja ne!


End file.
